Guilty x Creatures Ch. 66

"Why did you turn off the earpiece?" asked Anton.

"Eh, it's barely working. And beside, Brea will be here any minute anyway so it doesn't matter." said Pinnacle.

Anton had a tired look on his face as he shook his head again.

The room became awkwardly quiet for a bit as the three people all waited for Brea to arrive.

"...So, uh?...This is a pretty nice place you got here." said Pinnacle as she looked around the kitchen.

"Thank you." said Anton.

"...You know, I don't know why, but I really didn't expect you to be living in such a normal looking kind of-! Oh, thank goodness! Brea's here!" exclaimed Pinnacle as she smiled at a woman standing in the entryway.

"Pinnacle?...Wait, Anton!? Is that you?" said a very tall redheaded woman who was wearing a suit of white and golden colored plated armor and carrying a broadsword at the ready.

Although she looked to be human in appearance, Anton had always had the sneaking suspicion that Brea was not exactly what she seemed to be. Nonetheless, he still found her to be an easy going and likable person and was essentially on friendly terms with her.

"Hello, Brea. Yes, it's me." said Anton with a smile.

"What are you doing here? You're not after the same target we are, are you?" asked Brea.

"No, unfortunately it seems that I am the target you're looking for." said Anton as he kept the smile on his face and shrugged "Imagine that."

"...Seriously? You really are?" asked Brea.

"From what it sounds like I am." said Anton.

"...Oh. Well that's not going work." mumbled Brea as she hefted her sword upwards and slung it over her shoulder "Looks like this night was a waste. Sorry about this, Anton. We didn't know it was you we were going after."

"It's no problem, these things happen sometimes." said Anton "And I actually need to apologize myself. You see, Pinnacle threatened to kill my kiochi over there. And in order to stop her, I threatened to hurt you if she did, which I am sorry about."

"Did she really!? Pin, you are just terrible!" chastised Brea as she gave the parodi a disapproving look and turned back to Anton "Sorry about that, she should have known better. I'll definitely have a talk with her about it."

"What! Are you serious!? How am I the one getting in trouble for this!?" cried Pinnacle "That's not even fair!"

"I appreciate it. And again, I am sorry for threatening you like that." said Anton.

"It happens." said Brea with a shrug as she looked over at Mica "Pin's an Infernal after all... And we both know how you gotta be extreme with them sometimes... So when did you get a kiochi?"

"Just recently." said Anton as he followed her gaze "Her name is Mica, by the way."

"Mica, eh. Well isn't she a cutie." said Brea as she waved at the still trapped kiochi "Hi, Mica. It's nice to meet you."

Mica had a tired looking expression in her eyes as she moved her barely free fingers and waved back.

"So I have to say." said Anton as he dropped his aura and let his bubble disappear "I'm surprised to see you here of all people. I didn't know you took blacklist missions?"

"I don't normally, but the bills got to get paid somehow." said Brea as her sword and armor all burst into a cloud of sparkles as they vanished and left her wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top "And I gotta say myself, I'm surprised to see you here of all people. The only reason I even took this job was because I was told the guy here who is the target kidnapped a pair of sisters and turned them into his slaves. And we're supposed to help them. Now is that true, Anton? Did you really do that!?"

"It's partially true, though it's nowhere near as bad as it sounds." said Anton "First piece of inaccuracy there is that I'm the one who was actually kidnapped."

"...Oh, really!? They kidnapped you?...Why did you let them?" asked Brea.

"I was in a playful mood." chuckled Anton "And I thought I'd let them take me on a little adventure."

Brea smiled and went to say something else but stopped short as she noticed a tiny red dot just over Anton's eye. Her face went blank as her sword suddenly reappeared in her hand.

Anton remained completely still as the sword was instantly thrust into the open space right next to his head, where it froze just in time to stop a bullet from hitting him.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" exclaimed Brea as she turned to the entryway "Can you not see I'm talking here!?"

There was a moment of silence before a voice came from a bit further outside the room.

"Is this not a distraction?" it asked in a no nonsense manner.

"No! It's a code Lotus! We're dealing with a friendly here!" cried Brea as she pointed her sword in the direction of the unseen voice "Weapons down, man! The job is off!"

"...Alright then." said the voice.

A few moments later a short being stepped into the room and lifted a pair of what looked like night vision specs up off his deep set, dark eyes.

"Apologies. I seemed to have misread the situation." he said as he made a point of flipping on the safety of his weapon, which was a silenced rifle that was a little longer than he was tall.

"Clearly." muttered Brea before turning back to Anton "Sorry about that. I should have signaled them earlier, that's my fault."

"Don't worry about it. No harm no foul." said Anton with a shrug and a grin "So is this a new partner?"

"Yeah. I was told the last person who was sent here never came back. So I figured I should cover my bases and bring in some help. You know, just in case." explained Brea as her sword vanished from her hand "I'm guessing you ended up having some fun with the last poor schmuck?"

"You could say that." smiled Anton as Mica rolled her eyes in the background "Anyways, nice to meet you. I'm Anton."

"Duke." said the small being with a nod "It's a pleasure."

Dressed in a black bodysuit and tactical gear that left very little of his features visible, it was just barely possible for Anton to observe that this being appeared to be a pombero.

Standing at just under a meter tall, the pombero was a short, bipedal ape-man type of creature that was in essence a halfling sized version of a sasquatch-like being.

Small, sociable yet secretive and quiet in their habits, and covered in a coat of short, dark colored hair that was even spread out over the tops of their feet, the comparison between the pombero and halflings was an easy one to make. Despite this though, the two species, as both hominids, were only distantly related to one another and their similarities were the result of a comparable lifestyle and mere coincidence.

Anton went to say something else but stopped short mid speech as a sudden, angry sounding rattle of gunfire could be heard going off upstairs. This was quickly followed by a series of loud shouts, a stumbling commotion and finally, the sound of a window shattering right above them.

In the next instant a dark form passed in front of the kitchen window as it made its speedy way to the ground. Landing with a heavy thud, an arm-less human-sized being dressed all in black came back into view as it frantically scrambled up to its feet and began to race across the lawn. Still just visible in the dim evening light as it ran away, the stunned group all stood still as they watched the running figure crash through the back gate and disappear from sight into the forested acreage beyond. A moment after the being vanished, a broken looking sub-machine gun came flying into view as it had apparently been thrown out of the upstairs window at the fleeing being.

"...Another friend of yours I take it?" asked Anton as he turned back to Brea.

Before Brea could answer with anything more than a nod, Kianna's terrified voice rang out from the front of the house.

"Master! Master!" she cried in alarm "Answer me please! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine, Kianna! It's alright!" called Anton before turning back to Brea "Was that the last of your men? Or is there any more in the house?"

"No. That was the only other one." said Brea as she looked back out the window "What happened to him anyway?"

"Considering the look of his condition? I'm guessing he probably ran into Tessa." said Anton as he looked towards the front of the house "Girls! Everything is alright now! You can come on back! We're all in the kitchen!"

"You're all!?" questioned Fiona "Who's you're all!?"

"Come back and see!" said Anton "And don't worry! Turns out we're dealing with friendlies here!"

"Who are you talking to, Anton?" asked Brea "Are these the poor girls you enslaved?"

"Yes, and there's a bit of a long story behind that." said Anton as he grinned at the sight of the dual pair of faintly glowing eyes that were quickly, but cautiously approaching the doorway "Which it'll be easier for me to explain things after you've met them and seen what they are."

"And why's that? What are they... Oh, okay yeah, I see what you mean..." said Brea as the glaring dark elves stepped into the room and instantly flooded the space with the effects of their auras "...Oh my."

Pinnacle's tail was visually quivering as she subtly put herself between Brea and the dark elves.

Glancing at and then dismissing the still struggling Mica, the dark elves quickly turned their attention to the strangers in the room.

"...Friendlies, huh?" said Fiona as she crossed her arms and sized up the three invaders "Lucky them..."

Making a beeline for Anton, Kianna stood right next to him as she blatantly eyed the gun wielding Duke with an unfriendly stare.

"Do you really know these people, Master?" she questioned quietly as she pointed her ears straight back behind her head "Can we really trust them!?"

"We can." grinned Anton as he wrapped a reassuring arm around the unhappy dark elf and held her against him "Brea and Pinnacle are actually some long time acquaintances. And Duke here seems to be friendly enough, all things considered."

"Yeah, he looks super friendly looking..." muttered Fiona as she ran her eyes down the length of the pombero's gun.

Brea offered a stilted grin as the two dark elves both shifted their probing eyes to her.

"Uh, Hello..." she started before stopping short as her eyes suddenly darted to something behind Fiona.

Their ears pointing themselves straight upwards in alert, the dark elves quickly followed her gaze and looked at the entryway just as Tessa stepped into the room.

The mantis had her traditional blank, uncaring expression in her eyes as she casually made her way over to Anton.

In one of her middle hands she carried a severed human-like arm which appeared to have been sliced off at the shoulder, while dangling out from her absently chewing mouth hung the limply hanging fingers of another clearly human looking hand. The last bit of these fingers disappeared into her maw just as she stepped up to Anton. The sounds of crunching bones filled the stillness for a moment before Tessa's machine of a mouth finally destroyed the hand enough for it to be swallowed down with a gulp.

Without ceremony, the mantis reached in between her now stilled jaws and pulled out a heavily chewed up, stainless steel wrist watch that was dripping with both blood and saliva. She then absently handed this watch to Anton.

"...Thank you, Tessa. I appreciate you taking care of the intruder." grinned Anton as he used only two fingers to tentatively pick up the battered accessory "Also, I'm glad to see that you avoided getting shot in the process."

The mantis flicked her antennae in a dismissive manner as she set to work on peeling the black leather glove and ripped up sleeve off of the severed arm she had yet to eat.

Though she was focused on her task, the large eyes on her head still shifted back and forth as they calmly assessed the strangers in the room.

"So would any of you like to return this to your friend?" asked Anton as he held out the watch.

"Sure, I'll take it." said Duke "Since things seem to be wrapped up here, I might as well step out anyway."

"Tell your buddy he's lucky she didn't go for his head." said Fiona "Next time she probably will."

"...Yeah. I'll do that." muttered Duke as he watched Tessa begin to devour the severed arm, stump first.

Clearly preferring to keep some measure of distance between himself and the mantis, the pombero glanced up at Anton and beckoned with his hand for the watch.

"It was nice meeting you, Duke." grinned Anton as he tossed the watch over to him.

"Likewise." said the pombero as he caught the watch and turned to Brea "You two going to be okay here?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up with you later." said Brea "And tell Harvey I said I'm sorry, we were grossly misinformed about this whole mission."

"I'll say..." said Duke as he gave Tessa another glance before making his way to the door.

"Hey, are we really letting him go!?" whispered Fiona as she leaned in close to Anton.

"Yes, we're letting them all go." said Anton as he grinned at Brea "This was all just a mistake after all. And they all stopped as soon as they realized that."

"It was." nodded Brea "I never would have taken this job if I knew it was you."

"And we shouldn't have any problems with them, right?" said Anton as he nodded to the door the pombero had just disappeared through.

"No. They were hired under me and they've already been paid." said Brea "Harvey might have some ill will, but considering he just ran out on a job I doubt he'll want to make anything more out of it. And I'll deal with him if he does."

"Alright then, I guess we're good." said Anton as he smiled at the disappointed looking dark elves "Everything worked out for everybody. And no one has any reason to hold a grudge."

"Humph! Hmph, hmph!" cried Mica as she glared at Pinnacle.

"No reason to hold a grudge at all..." repeated Anton as he blatantly ignored the raging kiochi.

"Right... So, do you mind explaining what's going on here?" asked Brea as she looked back and forth between Mica, the dark elves and Tessa "Because none of these girls look like the helpless victims we were told about?"

After gathering some refreshments, and forcing Pinnacle to reluctantly release Mica, the group relocated outside and everyone situated themselves on the patio furniture while Anton told a very condensed story of how he and the others had all met.

"...Huh." nodded Brea after she had a moment to digest it all "Well, sounds like you've had a busy couple of weeks."

"You can say that again..." mumbled Anton as he grinned at Kianna who had positioned herself right next to him "Just one thing after another lately. And on that note, you wouldn't happen to know if anybody else is likely to show up here, would you?"

"Probably. Wouldn't know who for sure though." said Brea as she set her emptied glass down on a small table "I can spread the word about who exactly is involved with this job though. If you want."

"Hm... That might not be a bad idea... If you can be subtle about it." said Anton "The less people I have to deal with the better."

"Consider it done." she said as she stood up to leave "By the way, if you want any advice on this whole thing you've got going on here. You should really think about beefing up your security. Literally all we had to do was knock out a single ward. And that's just ridiculous."

"Yeah... I do need to get on that, I guess..." mumbled Anton "You about to head out?"

"Yeah, I think we've disrupted your night for long enough now..." said Brea as she stretched her arms upwards "We'll keep in touch though. Let you know if we hear about anybody heading this way."

"I'd appreciate that." nodded Anton.

"...You know. It was really nice seeing you again, Anton....It's been a long time." said Brea as she gave him a lopsided smile "And you look good....You look, kinda, happier, more so than you used to....It's nice. Really nice."

Taken aback, Anton merely blinked as Brea laughed softly and turned away from him.

"You should try not to disappear for so long next time." she said as she opened a portal "People miss having you around, more than you know."

"...Uh, yeah. I'll try harder to keep in touch, myself." said Anton "And, uh... It was good to see you guys too... It really was."

Brea laughed again as Pinnacle came up beside her and gave Anton her own smile.

"Good to hear! Have a goodnight, everybody!" said Brea "Hopefully we'll see you all again soon!"

Once the duo had disappeared, Anton sat and stared at where their portal had been for a second before turning to give everyone a quick glance.

"So?" he said as he looked from one face to another "What did you guys think?"

"I think it's time for dinner..." muttered Fiona.

"I think I'd like to kick that skinny little clown bitch's ass!" growled Mica.

"...I think, they were nice." said Kianna "...I like that they like you."

Anton chuckled as he got to his feet.

"I agree, liking me is always a good quality for people to have. And I also agree that it's about time for dinner." he said as he turned and made his way to the door "So let's go fix the ward real quick and then figure out what we want to eat."

"Tessa doesn't get a vote for dinner." declared Fiona as she stepped through the door that Anton was holding open "We all know she won't vote for real food, and she's already eaten anyway."

"Shut up, Fiona." grumbled Mica as she led Tessa inside "Stop talking shit."

Anton chuckled again and shook his head as they passed by.

"Master..." said Kianna as she came up beside him "Do you really think everything will be okay? With Brea and Pinnacle, I mean?"

"I do, honestly." said Anton "I've known those two for a good while now, many years actually, and they're good people. We shouldn't have to worry about them."

"...Well, okay. If you're sure." said Kianna.

"I am." said Anton with a sigh "I just hope the next assassination attempt goes as smoothly as this one did... Which that really isn't something you ever expect to hear yourself say... My life has seriously gone off the rails lately... But at least it's in a fun way, and I wouldn't change anything."

As Anton slipped his arm around her waist, Kianna giggled and eagerly hugged him back as they both stepped inside together.